The present invention relates to a coupling mechanism for the interconnection of sealing plates preferably plastic sealing plates that are to be built into a sealing wall, especially a slotted wall for the vertical sealing of ground storages or dumps; each sealing plate has sides for example vertical sides, at least some of which are provided with a coupling half, preferably also of plastic, whereby adjacent coupling halves of adjacent sealing plates cooperate in a formfitting, interlocking manner to effect the interconnection of the sealing plates and to form a hollow space that can be checked.
For the production of sealing walls for earthwork and hydraulic engineering purposes, as well as for the sealing of dumps, it is known to build plastic sealing plates into such sealing walls. The plastic sealing plates are needed as an additional sealing layer because the material of the sealing walls, which are made of binder and/or silicate material, has a permeability that cannot be tolerated when dumps are to be sealed. To achieve the additional sealing by means of the sealing plates that are to be built into the sealing wall, the vertical sides of these sealing plates have to be interconnected in an impervious manner i.e. in such a way as to provide a liquidtight seal. With the heretofore known constructions, this is effected by coupling halves that are disposed on adjacent sealing plates and that fit together in an interlocking manner.
As disclosed in one heretofore known arrangement of sealing plates ( German Offenlegungsschrift No. 34 36 735), after being fitted together the two coupling halves form a void or hollow space that can be equipped for checking the seal or imperviousness of the connection between adjacent sealing plates. This checking can be effected either only after the interconnection, or continuously in the latter case, periodic or continuous monitoring is possible.
Since sealing walls are usually produced accompanied by the use of a supporting liquid, which gets into the hollow space during the interconnection of the sealing plates, it is necessary to clean the hollow space after the interconnection is completed. This procedure has to be repeated for each new interconnection of sealing plates. To accomplish this cleaning, it is first necessary to close off the base of the hollow space with a sealing material or a "packer" before the supporting liquid, which may even include pollutants, can be removed from the hollow space and the latter can be cleaned.
In the heretofore known embodiment of the aforementioned German Offenlegungsschrift No. 34 36 735, the hollow space is primarily formed by two tubular coupling halves. The first coupling half has a diameter that is greater than that of a second coupling half, and surrounds the latter. Remote .+-.rom its sealing plate each coupling half is provided with a slot, with the sealing wall that is connected to the smaller coupling half projecting through the slot of the larger coupling half. Formed on the outer surface of the inner coupling half are sealing beads that also rest against the inner surface of the outer coupling half in an attempt to provide a seal.
A drawback of this heretofore known construction is that due to the considerable amount of play between the inner coupling tube and the outer coupling tube, especially under the harsh conditions encountered in practice, the sealing effect between the two coupling halves is not sufficient, after the supporting liquid has been pumped out of the hollow space and the latter has been cleaned, to reliably prevent more supporting liquid from penetrating into the hollow space. When this happens, the supporting liquid penetrates especially into that area between the cooperating coupling halves that was to be welded together subsequent to the cleaning operation. Thus it becomes difficult to drain this hollow space, clean the latter, and obtain an impervious weld. A further drawback of the heretofore known construction is that the hollow space provides very little guidance during the interconnection of the coupling halves. In addition, the two round profiles that are inserted into one another offer little resistance to being pulled apart. Yet another drawback is the absence of a guide for the tools that will later be used.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a configuration for the coupling halves where after the interconnection of the same, yet prior to welding together thereof, an adequately impervious connection is provided, whereupon the subsequent welding of the coupling halves provides impervious welds, with the configuration of the coupling halves also providing guiding properties that prevent the coupling halves from pulling apart during assembly.